Blizzard
by AHeartForStories
Summary: Modern AU/whump. Hiccup had left to help an acquaintance of theirs and Astrid is left home alone. When he doesn't return, she grows worried. Warning for blood.


_Saw this prompt pass by my blog and I just had to write a Hiccstrid fic based around it. So enjoy! Constructive criticism is appreciated!_

* * *

 **Blizzard**

When Astrid looked at the clock once again that evening and noticed that it was already well past midnight, her worry instantly grew tenfold.

Hiccup should have come home hours ago. He was just supposed to check some wiring at the place of an acquaintance of theirs. He had told her himself that this should be a relatively quick fix, one he'd done many times before.

And though such claims should sometimes be taken like a grain of salt with him, he had promised to call or send a text in case this were to take longer than anticipated. Astrid tended to believe his promises, which he didn't break so easily.

Well, there were no texts and there had been no missed calls whatsoever so far. It was why Astrid stayed with the fact that her husband should have been long home by now and on the couch to cuddle with her as they watched a Snoggletog movie.

Checking her cellphone, which she had done numerous times by now, and still noticing no new messages of any kind, she got up with a heavy sigh and an equally heavy heart to look out of the window and placed her already cold mug of coffee down on the small table in front of her. It remained untouched.

One glance out the window told her that it was still snowing too. A thick layer of it covered the street outside, still pristine due to the late hour. That made it all the more difficult for him to drive himself home. He already had a hard time walking around in the Winter with his leg, let alone drive.

It's not that he was a bad driver, it was just that he and Winter did not mix well.

Oh, she hoped nothing bad had happened to him.

She would've gone and searched for him herself already, but...

A look was given to the still silent babyphone on that same coffee table next to her mug. She couldn't possibly leave their baby girl behind to go search for her father. Not unless she had no other choice and Hiccup was staying away for much too long.

Well, Astrid couldn't take it anymore. She had to go find him. Her idiot might have gotten hurt somehow. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

He was once reckless, but since becoming a father had become more careful in favour of watching his little girl grow up, of being able to play with her and teach her all he knew, of watching her graduate and cry at her wedding. He had made a sudden turn in life little over a year ago when the love of his life told him she was pregnant and visits to the doctor and even the hospital had lessened significantly.

It had been months since the last time, which was when he tried to help Snotlout Jorgenson after he had gotten himself in trouble with some guys in a bar. He had gotten called out of bed in the middle of the night by some worried Thorston twins, who sometimes had a little bit more sense than the Snot, and what had begun as him trying to keep the peace had turned into the very fist fight Hiccup had been trying to avoid.

Having been the one to have dragged him into it, Astrid had blamed Snotlout for weeks before Hiccup managed to get her in the same room as him to talk it out.

But Mr. Haddock had once been a reckless, not-actively-seeking-out-trouble troublemaker. So to have him not come home now... While there was such a heavy snowfall outside...

Astrid couldn't take the waiting.

Without a second thought did she pick up her phone and looked through her list of contacts to find her most trusted of friends.

Calling her despite the late hour, Astrid hoped she would pick up.

"Yeah?" Heather's groggy voice came through.

* * *

One arduously long half an hour passed before Astrid could hear the doorbell ring all the way from the bedroom she shared with Hiccup, which was where their four month old baby slept in her crib.

Helga she was named. Old Norse for 'holy' or 'blessed', much like how Astrid meant 'divine strength'. It seemed fitting with both of their families descending from a long and old Viking bloodline and it was the name Hiccup had suggested they call her before she was even born.

Little Helga Haddock-Hofferson. HHH, like her father.

Helga was still vast asleep as she suckled on her pacifier and clutched her stuffed dragon to her chest. So her mother quietly left the room to travel down the stairs, skipping the last four steps. She was desperate to find her husband, who still had not shown his freckled face.

Opening the front door, Heather invited herself in. And like she had hoped, Fishlegs, Heather's longtime boyfriend, had come with.

"Oh my Thor, Astrid, we came as soon as we could, but the streets were so slippery!" Heather didn't miss a single heartbeat before she started talking, hushing herself when Astrid made it clear that the baby was sleeping upstairs.

"Still haven't heard anything from Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked in a soft tone. Both of them shared her concern, knowing that their mutual friend liked nothing more than to spend time with his family after a long day of work.

"No, I haven't and I'm scared something happened to him. I need to get out there!" Her friends had only just arrived and already Astrid had pulled on her coat and scarf. She was pulling on her gloves and beanie hat next.

"Don't worry, Astrid. Fishlegs can stay here with the baby while you and I go out there and look for Hiccup." Heather reassured her as her boyfriend dressed out of his own thick winterwear. Astrid looked to him next.

"Fishlegs-"

"I know, I know, Astrid. I've looked after Helga before, I know how to take care of her. I'd protect her with my life. We'll be fine, you know we love her too." The only man larger than life besides Stoick the Vast, the currently missing person's father, spoke to ease her troubled heart.

That last part was true.

The day Helga was born wasn't just memorable because their first child had come into the world after nine months of waiting, but also because all of their friends had been right there in the waiting room.

Only the Gods knew how they ended up being as close as they did.

Helga was the daughter of Hiccup and Astrid, but Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs and Heather were her aunts and uncles. Some crazy, others somewhat considered normal.

Yes, her baby would be safe with Fishlegs. Astrid knew that to be true.

The engine of Heather's car roaring to life outside, the front door was still wide open, snapped the tired mother back to reality. She shot one last glance to the upper steps of the stairs and left.

* * *

The two women barely spoke a word and the radio didn't play. Silence was their only companion as they drove through the streets of their town. They were nearly completely abandoned at this late hour. Besides a few stores that were open all night, all the other establishments were closed.

Astrid found her mind wandering to her significant other and Heather wasn't quite sure what to tell her.

So she decided to ask her a question instead.

"Still nothing?" She only glanced at the other occupant of the car from the corners of her eyes, keeping her attention on the treacherous road.

"No." A sigh as Astrid's phone blinked to life.

Love didn't hurt. That was something people liked to say, but it wasn't true. What was true was that you sure as Hel could be driven mad when you love someone and said loved one's whereabouts or well-being remained unknown.

"So Hiccup went to this guy's house to check... what?" Heather had to keep a conversation going. Astrid looked ready to either fall asleep, cry or both.

She was a strong young woman, the strongest she knew, but there was only so much worry a person could take. Especially when exhausted after taking care of an infant for the last four months after already carrying her for nine. Helga had taken after her father in that she was a very active child already.

Hiccup always did his best to help his young family, but there was only so much he could do with his full-time job, which he worked hard at to provide aswell. And Astrid, for now, stayed at home. At least until their daughter was a little older.

Had she not been in between jobs anyway, Hiccup would have gladly become a stay-at-home father.

"He had some trouble with his lights and hoped Hiccup could figure out why. That's all I got before Hiccup left. That and that this should've been a quick fix. He told me he'd be back by eight." She replied, appreciating her friend's attempt at keeping her up and talking.

This acquaintance did live in a different town, but it was relatively close to the one they were living in now, North Berk. The snow would make traveling there a little longer, but Hiccup had thought about that as he told his wife when exactly he'd be back. He may be an idiot, but he was of the intelligent kind. He must have taken that into account.

"Next time let them call an electrician. You know Hiccup's reputation." Heather spoke, though sternly so. The reputation she mentioned was that Hiccup had a hard time turning people down. It wouldn't be the first time others had taken advantage of that fact.

Her husband was too good in a world that was often too harsh. It was one of the reasons Astrid married him, she had to admit.

They were driving out of town soon enough, taking the only road Hiccup could have taken to his destination. The shortest he could have taken. If he had been on his way, they would have crossed him by now. Not too many cars still driving around either.

Heather decided to keep this particular thought to herself. But she figured that, if they did not meet Hiccup anytime soon, they would need to have a 'talk' with this guy Hiccup was supposed to meet. She wouldn't take "it's late, come back tomorrow" for an answer.

They were far out in the middle of nowhere. They're only companions besides the silence was the darkness and the trees. The streetlights seemed to have failed to turn on at this section, which really didn't help.

If Astrid wasn't already worried for her lover, she sure was now.

On the opposite side of the road did the headlights of another car doom up in the distance. Though it was standing still next to asphalt, Heather and Astrid didn't pay it any mind at first.

Not until they passed and Astrid recognized that dark red colour.

"That's our car!"

Heather hit the breaks a little harder and abrupter than she intended.

The vehicle had stopped for barely a second before the passenger door was flung open and Astrid was out. She ran as fast as she could through the falling snow to get to the other car, slipping on some hidden spots of ice along the way.

"Hiccup. Hiccup!"

"Astrid..." Heather had not immediately followed her best friend. Not just to grab a flashlight she kept in the dashboard, but also to stare when she realized that the other car wasn't just parked at the side of the road.

It had crashed into a tree.

"Oh no..." Finally moving, she hurried to catch up.

"Hiccup?" Astrid called her husband's name as she dove down and looked into the driver's seat through the open driver's seat door to find absolutely no one there.

Well, the door was open. Did Hiccup get out?

"He's not here." She told Heather as she caught up and she decided to take a look in the backseat, discovering that to be empty aswell.

Hiccup wasn't here, yet the car engine was still running. He wouldn't just leave it behind like this, so where did he go? Find better cellphone reception to call his concerned partner?

"Astrid... Look at this." Heather's voice drew her attention again when she had been looking out into the dark forests on either side of them and back in the way from whence they came, hoping to see a tall, lanky silhouette that they could have somehow driven past.

She hated that they still hadn't found him.

"What did you-" Astrid wanted to ask what she might have found when she noticed what Heather's flashlight was illuminating.

The direction from which Hiccup came from, it had obvious tire tracks of him swerving out of the way of something, which was most likely how he ended up crashed against a tree.

But there was also blood. And a lot of it.

Astrid felt herself becoming still and growing colder than even the crisp freezing air around them as she approached. She didn't even know she was doing so. Her body moved of its own accord.

How did they miss that? It looked like she even almost slipped in the dark red soaking up the snow. Her bootprints were in them.

The falling flakes were gradually covering it up, but there were definitely streaks of blood they had passed.

They made it look like Hiccup had been bleeding profusely. Like he had been thrown away from his car and skidded painfully across the asphalt.

Astrid felt her heart stop at the sight. Tears welled up in her eyes and fell silently down her cheeks.

Hiccup, despite getting hurt so much in his life, was a big, sturdy guy. Not physically big since he was scrawny no matter how many fastfood meals they could down, but he was stronger than he looked.

Those drunken imbecils that had insisted on fighting with him when he had insisted on having a civil chat that night at the bar ended up worse off than the guy they thought would prove to be an easy victory.

Hiccup was a sturdy young man, sometimes abnormally so, but this much blood?

"There's no body." Heather swallowed her own fears for her best friend's sake. They couldn't simply jump to conclusions like that.

Trying to get herself back together, Astrid wiped her cheeks dry and nodded. Gods, she was tired.

But Heather was right, there was no body. They didn't even know if it was Hiccup's blood to begin with. For all they knew-

"He could've hit a deer or something and tried to help it. You know what he's like." Yes, Astrid knew exactly what he was like.

The reason he lost his leg little over ten years ago was because he jumped in front of a car to save his jet black kitten, Toothless, who still lived with them. He also once climbed a pretty high tree just to get Stormfly down when the bird had escaped her cage and outright refused to come back.

The lengths he had gone to for animals through the years... Astrid wouldn't be surprised if Hiccup had hit something and then tried to follow it through the trees to see if it was okay.

Except there was one problem.

There were no spots of blood leading into the forest. Therefore nothing had been hit and then limped off into the woods.

"No blood on the car..." She could hear Heather tell her absentmindedly when she suddenly found the other woman back at their red car again. Red, like the colour Astrid had once mentioned suited Hiccup well back when they were eighteen and traveling.

Either way, apparently Heather had been checking the front for any sign that something of flesh and fur had collided with the metal weapon on wheels they called a vehicle and used for daily transport.

When their eyes met, it seemed they had come to the same conclusion.

It wasn't animal blood that coated the street.

They didn't want to return to their first option, but did they have a choice?

"I'm calling the cops." Heather made the decision for her.

It seemed like there was reception after all, decimating the possibility that Hiccup could've tried walking to the nearest town until he could call for an ambulance when he could have just stayed seated instead.

Alone with her thoughts, Astrid found her gaze moving back down to the skid marks of blood.

Hiccup swerved for something, got out and then got hurt himself? Is that what happened here? There was no other explanation. None she could think of.

And then she wondered, did someone run him right over? Was someone pissed off at Hiccup when he was the one who crashed? And did they decide to hit the gas pedal to mow him down when he exited his car to check if the other party involved was okay? Did they take him and was that the reason why he wasn't here?!

Astrid didn't want to think about it. She hated the very thought of someone hurting her loving husband, who was by nature a forgiving, compassionate, patience soul. The notion that anybody would want to harm a person so good made her sick to her stomach. Made worse by the fact that this particular person was her lover and the father of her baby.

And yet, though she tried to stop them, that horrible scenario was followed by many more and Astrid felt like shouting at the dark sky just to make them all stop.

Just then her eye caught something else in the snow. There were strange markings that were too big to belong to any known animal. Honestly, she felt like calling herself crazy for even considering to call them animal prints.

Honestly, this crime scene... What else could you call this?... It looked like something ripped right out of a horror movie or a thriller.

If her partner hadn't been missing, she might have even felt the need to investigate.

Instead Astrid, numb and chilled to the bone, sat back down in the passenger seat of Heather's car and watched said driver call the police. Her animated gestures as she called in a panic, vividly describing what they had found, reminded Astrid of Hiccup. And she realized, with an unbearable pain in her heart, that the love of her life was missing.

Missing, hurt or possibly even dead.


End file.
